Hi everyone! We (the shelter) have a poor little puppy in emergency surgery right now, and it's going to be expensive, so we're doing a fundraiser to cover the costs.

This little guy was picked up on the 4th of July. A good samaritan found him limping in the middle of the road. She said other people were just driving around him. She stopped and called the state police. The state police around here are really great with animals, so four troopers ended up out there, making sure the puppy was safe from the traffic. They called my mom, and she and I went out to get the puppy.

His leg was totally dangling. It was horrible. We got him on the stretcher and put him in the back of the truck... and he promptly wiggled out of the stretcher! He ended up riding on my lap the whole way. Now this dog was obviously in horrible pain and I wouldn't have been surprised if he was snappish, but he was giving me kisses the whole ride! He's just the sweetest puppy. We took him to our regular vet (it was a holiday, so the vet's office was closed, but we contacted one of the vets and she came in on her day off to examine the puppy. We are so grateful!). She examined him and stabilized the leg and said "This is a really bad fracture. This will either be an expensive surgery by an orthopedic specialist or amputation." It's especially difficult because he is only 5 to 6 months old and the fracture is near a growth plate.

We named him Trooper, after the nice state troopers who helped him. Today Trooper is at Tufts vet specialists getting his surgery. It was something that needed to be fixed asap, so we couldn't wait to raise the full amount of money. We're not sure what the total cost will be. First estimates were $4,000-5,000. The surgeon said his leg may never heal perfectly straight, but this is the best chance he has. We are accepting donations now to help pay for his bills. Please share this story if you can.

Donations can be made out to "Milton Animal League" and mailed to: Milton Animal League 181 Governor Stoughton Lane Milton MA 02186. Donations through paypal can be made through our website, http://www.miltonanimalleague.org. If you are on facebook, we have a post up on our page that can be shared: http://www.facebook.com/groups/miltonanimalleague/. The Milton Animal League is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organisation. Of course, if we end up raising more money than his bills cost, any extra funds will go to the care of other homeless animals.

Thank you for reading! I love you guys!

P.S. He will be back at the shelter next week, so I promise to take more pics of his adorable face then!

REALLY COOL NEWS YOU GUYS: Troopers family were found! He was STOLEN from a few towns over. The family filed a police report and had been searching for him. Because Trooper's story made the news, the family saw it. They are up at the vet hospital with him right now, where he is recovering from his surgery. His named is Rocco, but they were so moved by how everyone came together to help their dog that they are changing his name to Rocco-Trooper. That's all I know right now, I will let you know when we get any updates.

I know. My friend was telling me just a few days ago about a news story she had seen about the rise of pet thefts in the area. Apparently people are stealing dogs out of yards and then either reselling them or waiting until the families offer a reward. It makes me so nervous about letting my dog out in the yard by herself.

So this is really weird, but the owners seem to have disappeared? We can't get in touch with them, and they never showed up at the vet hospital. They are definitely the owners: they did file a police report when the puppy was stolen, and they sent us all his vet paperwork. The woman was sobbing when she talked to us and said she was leaving right then to drive to the vet hospital, but when we contacted the hospital, she had never arrived. So we're really confused, and as of right now we are still fundraising, because we have a $5,000 vet bill that has to be paid.

Okay, update to the update: We got in touch with the woman. She had forgotten to give us her phone #, so we had had no way of getting in touch with her. And she had gone to the vet hospital at the wrong time! But now we have been in contact, and she has visited the puppy.

Trooper has pins in his leg that will be in there for the rest of his life. He seems to be recovering well now. He will probably need some kind of physical therapy as he heals, and he might get arthritis in that leg as he ages. But he is still in good spirits, very happy and loves everybody!

Here is an update video on the puppy. As you can see, he is feeling so much better that it's impossible to keep him still!

The great news is that we have been able to raise the full $5,000! Thank you to everyone who contributed. His human is so grateful, because she couldn't afford it herself. He is healing well and will get his stitches out the end of the week. Then he will need periodic x-rays to make sure the leg is healing well. He is definitely feeling so much better now!